Loose horse drawing off

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by helicopter11

That makes sense. I figured that each quarter mile marker has a beam that determines each fractional time. I figured that before the horses crossed the 1/4 mile pole, for example, it was set-off before they crossed it.

The beams just determine the actual race time when they cross each point.

The photo finish guy also handles the timing of races here.

The timing system is setup here so that the beams can't be tripped until 20.00 seconds have passed since the last quarter mile.

They have a spider problem on the backstretch -- and on a couple of occasions this meet -- a spider has crawled on the beam and tripped it way early. In those instances, the times on the TV will be whacky and they will hand-time the race and use the hand-time.

Tracks should take the timing of races very seriously. If they have spiders and bees anywhere near the poles where the timing beams are setup -- they need to get rid of them. Tracks like Gulfstream and Tampa have a big bird problem. Outriders and starters are often focused on what they're doing and can be so oblivious that they trip the timer.

The problem is almost never with the equipment.